League of their own (Movie Review Sample)

A league of their Own Name Institution of Affiliation "A League of their Own" directed by Penny Marshall is one rich in the theme of feminism. The historical setting of the film is between 1943 and 1954 during World War II. Most men have been recruited in the armed forces and as such there is a shortage of the men that can participate in baseball which is considered a masculine sport. Walter Harvey persuades other men that have stakes in the game of baseball to bankroll a Women’s baseball league hence the inception of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGBL) (Greenhut et al., 1992). The theme of feminism is apparent in the film since the recruitment of team members is not only done on the criterion of good athletic ability but beauty is also an important criterion for a woman to join a baseball team. The fact that women are not expected to show good performance in this "masculine" game is made apparent by the coach of the prominent Rockford Peaches who treats the women’s team as a joke at the start of the league. In the film, women have been objectified for the sexual amusement of men. Women are forced to dress skimpily because the men in charge of running the league believe that they can only attract large crowds in the stadiums if they use women as sexual objects. Comments such as "There is no crying in baseball" made by Jimmy Dugan (the coach of Rockford Peaches) (Greenhut et al., 1992) shows that women are believed to be weak and unable to meet the demanding nature of the game (Cahn, 2015). However, the women in the film come out as heroines as the Peaches qualify for the World Series and become champions through the prowess of Dottie who outshines her sister Kit in the final match (Greenhut et al., 1992). There are two main female characters in the film, Dottie and Kit. Dottie is presented as a better player than her sister Kit who is only recruited to the team so that she can convince her sister to join. The two main characters are uneducated farm girls that have to be cultured to "act lady-like" during the team’s tutorial sessions. Kit is discontent with the suburban life which is why she is motivated to join the baseball team. As for Dottie, she is content with her life on the farm and only leaves for the sake of her sister. Dottie is ready to leave the team the moment her husband comes back from war and this is an indication that she is content with living in the shadow of her husband. Dottie has established her place in the team and she is a valued player but she is ready to give all that up to be with her husband. The historical setting of the film gives insight into Dottie’s character. During the period when the Second World War was ongoing women were considered subordinate to men. This is why it was difficult for Dottie to continue participating in the league when she had "more important matters" such as taking care of her husband (Greenhut et al., 1992). Kit brings out the struggle by women to leave the subordinate position in society where they have been relegated. Kit fights to have her prowess in baseball recognized even with her mediocre talent and the fact that she challenges her sister who is highly talented means that she has earned herself a place on the wall of fame and she has proven that women can also perform well in a "masculine" sport. The concept of intersectionality is pronounced in the film. Women have been made subject to several categories of oppression that are all designed to ensure that they remain in a subordinate position in the society. Men are assigned a supreme position in society and it is believed that women cannot perform nearly as well as men in some activities (Cahn, 2015). For example, the inception of the women’s league in baseball results from the shortage of men in the sport. Stakeholders in the sport believe that women cannot perform as well as men in the sport so the only way to attract people to the stadiums is by getting them to dress down so that men can have something to admire. The society forces women to act weak because being tough is a trait that is assigned to men and when observed in women it is not admirable (Cahn, 2015). When women are poached from softball teams and into baseball teams the newspapers and magazines label this as masculinization of women and it is given a negative connotation making it undesirable. It is also apparent that women have been denied a fair opportunity at education because they are not able to read and they have to be cultured until they join the baseball teams. In one instance a player is not ab...